Cattle thief sentenced to 15 years in prison

Coleman, Texas - A Rockwood man was arrested and charged with second degree theft of livestock and sentenced to 15 years in prison on Feb. 2 after stealing $3,000 worth of cattle from a rancher located in Coleman, Texas. Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association Special Ranger Joe Roberts and Coleman County Sheriff's Deputy Archie Lancaster led the investigation. Roberts received a phone call on March 6, 2014 from a ranch hand who stated that three head of cattle from were stolen from his boss's ranch in Coleman, Texas. The foreman told Roberts that he found four wires cut on the victim's fence and a gate going into the neighbor's property had been moved. The suspect, Don Ernest Estes, 40, of Rockwood, owns the land neighboring the victim's property where the fence and gate had been tampered with. Roberts determined that Estes had stolen the cattle from the victim, whose land shared a fence line...more